Trolley Wayfinder Birds Eye View of Trolley Routes in New England.

1904 Lane Trolley Map and View of New England - 1st Edition

Publication Date: 1904

About this Item

Very good. Original card folder. Size 20.5 x 14.25 Inches. A radiantly rich chromolithograph 1904 first edition bird's-eye view style pocket map of New England issued by John Jenness Lane and George Walker for the New England Street Railway Club. The view was produced upon Lane's election as secretary of the Club to promote the extensive but ephemeral New England streetcar network. It is the first such image, combining trolley lines with a bird's-eye perspective, but inspired others, including similar images of the New York area, Long Island, the Mid-Atlantic States, and the vicinity of Chicago. A Closer Look Centered on Boston, New England's streetcar system is revealed extending north as far as Lewistown, Brunswick and Yarmouth, Maine; south to Narragansett Bay, Newport and New Bedford, Massachusetts; and west as far as Worcester. Both electric railroads and steam railroads are noted here, with red lines indicating an electric railroad and a black line marking the route of a steam railroad. Various parks, lighthouses, historic sites, and geographical features are also labeled. Popular routes are highlighted by inset maps and include: Springfield-Turners Falls, Worcester-Springfield, Springfield-New York City, Pittsfield and Vicinity, Rochester-Nashua, Portsmouth-Lewiston, and a triangle route from Worchester to Providence to New London and back. An inset of the vicinity of Boston is situated in the upper left. Interurban Streetcars At the end of the 19th century, New England was serviced by an extensive network of interurban electric and steam powered streetcars. These were not proper railroads, but rather a separate system, run by various competing companies, that extended from New York to Boston, and throughout New England as far north as Bath and Lewiston, Maine. By 1919, most of the interurban streetcar lines were consolidated under the Shore Line Electric Railway. The rise of the automobile ushered in the end of streetcar travel by 1940. Chromolithography Chromolithography is a color lithographic technique developed in the mid-19th century. The process involved using multiple lithographic stones, one for each color, to yield a rich composite effect. Oftentimes, the process would start with a black basecoat upon which subsequent colors were layered. Some chromolithographs used 30 or more separate lithographic stones to achieve the desired effect. Chromolithograph color could also be effectively blended for even more dramatic effects. The process became extremely popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when it emerged as the dominate method of color printing Publication History and Census This map was created by John Jenness Lane who contracted its production to George H. Walker of behalf of the New England Street Railway Club. The first edition, offered here, appeared in 1904 and is recognizable for exceptionally high production values with rich, vivid multi-color chromolithography. Subsequent editions, issued from 1905 to 1909, exhibit gradually less color, with some later editions issued only in black and red. The 1905 edition is the most common, but subsequent updated editions appeared annually. We have identified no institutional holdings of this, the 1904 first edition, despite a ghost reference (wherein no institutional holdings are identified) in OCLC. We have handled three previous examples of the 1904 first edition. References: OCLC 166638270.

Seller Inventory # TrolleyRoutesNewEngland-lane-1904-4

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Trolley Wayfinder Birds Eye View of Trolley Routes in New England.
• Publication Date: 1904
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Seller catalogs:
  • MASSACHUSETTS-CONNECTICUT-RHODEISLAND